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Abstract
Terri Schiavo's life and death placed international focus on social workers' need to better understand and serve health care surrogates and proxies making life-sustaining treatment decisions on behalf of medical patients. This study (N = 132) reports initial validation of a new measure, the Acceptance of Treatment Choice Inventory (ATCI), designed to evaluate benefits and barriers considered by health care surrogates and proxies prior to making a life-sustaining treatment decision about CPR, tube-feedings, dialysis, and ventilation. Affirming a two-factor model with acceptable reliability and preliminary construct validity, surrogates sought decision support and desired to represent patients' wishes adequately.
Notes
Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) of 1990, P. L. 101-508, 104 Stat. 1388.